Peter Kitchen writes.
Peter Kitchen and Mark Smith were the victors as Shrewsbury came from behind twice to rescue a point against Oswestry.
On a historic night for Shrewsbury as they hosted their first Shropshire Chess League match at their new Nerdy Café home, Oswestry threatened to spoil the party as new signing Rudy van Kemenade beat Francis Best on top board.
Smith made light of turning up half an hour late to impressively defeat Oswestry captain Charles Lowick Higgie on board three, only for James Joynson to put the visitors back in front by defeating over-the-board debutant Richard Vernon on board three.
After Dan Lockett and Gary Slegg drew on board four, Kitchen held his nerve to beat Richard Bryant on board two in an 80-move game that lasted more than three hours to square the scores at 2.5-2.5.
Shrewsbury remain bottom of the division one table on game points scored – but now find themselves in a four-way scrap to avoid the drop. Despite there only being five teams in the division, the teams lying second to fifth are all tied on three points.
As well as welcoming Vernon into the team in place of the unavailable Rob Nayman for his debut, Shrewsbury had tweaked their board order by swapping their two top boards.
But Best found the going tough as black against van Kemenade’s Bird’s Opening. The Oswestry man whipped up an ominous kingside attack that ultimately broke through to give Oswestry the lead.
Yet the hosts were swiftly level. Smith may have been delayed, but playing a variation of the Exchange Grunfeld that he knows well with the black pieces, he quickly found himself in a simplified ending. He won an exchange and repelled Lowick Higgie’s passed a-pawn to claim victory. It was a fine effort from Smith, especially considering his time disadvantage and that he was quite considerably outrated by his opponent.
Vernon faced a tough debut against Joynson. His opponent built up an imposing phalanx of central pawns, managing to push one all the way to d7, and ultimately the Shrewsbury man succumbed to defeat.
That left Shrewsbury 2-1 down but with their two whites still playing. Dan Lockett was a pawn up against Gary Slegg on board four, but eventually had to settle for a draw – meaning Shrewsbury needed to win on the final board to save the match.
Kitchen had enjoyed the better of the opening – an offbeat version of the Queen’s Indian Defence – and won Bryant’s isolated d-pawn on move 18. He quickly worked his way into an ending where he had a bishop and six pawns versus Bryant’s night and five pawns.
But matters were complicated by Kitchen starting to run short of time – and the wily Bryant, with more than half an hour of his own thinking time still left, found ways to make life difficult. Kitchen had to play more than 30 moves with less than a minute – and often less than 30 seconds – on his clock, topped up by 10 seconds increment on each move.
A position with king, bishop and e and g-pawns versus a lone king and knight emerged.
Computer analysis later showed Bryant missed an opportunity to force a draw after Kitchen had mistakenly sidelined his king to eliminate a passed a-pawn. But with the chance missed, a successful triangulation allowed the white king to penetrate on the kingside and force the pawns forward.
Bryant eventually called it a day shortly after 10.30pm – to the relief of those of a Shrewsbury persuasion watching on. The game, annotated by Peter Kitchen, can be played through here, or accessed through the “Interesting Games” tab.
It marked something of a personal triumph for Kitchen, who had a woeful record against the experienced and higher-rated Bryant that included one fortuitous win several years ago from more than half a dozen encounters.
The result represented a good improvement for Shrewsbury, who had been well beaten 5-0 by Oswestry in the reverse fixture in November.
Final scores:
Shrewsbury 2.5-2.5 Oswestry (Shrewsbury colours in brackets)
1.Francis Best (b) 0-1 Rudy van Kemenade
2.Peter Kitchen (w) 1-0 Richard Bryant
3.Mark Smith (b) 1-0 Charles Lowick Higgie
4.Dan Lockett (w) 0.5-0.5 Gary Slegg
5.Richard Vernon (b) 0-1 James Joynson